


Brave New World

by gala_apples



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dubious Consent, Held Down, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Triadverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 15:45:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6290449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gala_apples/pseuds/gala_apples
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve sees something he doesn't expect, then Bruce does something he doesn't expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brave New World

**Author's Note:**

> Written for day six of triadverse week, prompt favourite AU. The AU I chose was the one where everyone happily lives in Avengers Tower, and act like a found family. If you'd like more info on triadverse, have a [FAQ.](http://triadverse.tumblr.com/post/86154454124/triad-verse-faq)

It’s not that Steve doesn’t trust JARVIS. After all, the AI is part of what keeps Tony alive as Ironman, and half the time that Tony gets hurt it’s because he’s not listening to JARVIS’s advice. JARVIS controls everything in the tower, and Avengers Tower is by far the best place he’s ever lived. But perfect system or not, there’s something in Steve that won’t let him relax until he scouts. He can’t sleep if he doesn’t do it. Sleep is hard enough to come by, these days. If his mind can be assuaged by running through the halls for the hour it takes to cover all the floors, it’s worth the time spent. It’s good exercise, anyway.

JARVIS’s dry comments that it’s unnecessary aside, Steve’s happy about his decision. At least until he opens a door on a Thursday and sees something he really shouldn’t be seeing. And something Natasha shouldn’t be seeing, even though she seems to be enjoying it. And something that Clint and Tony and Pepper shouldn’t be doing. Heroes aren’t that kind of man.

At least he’s pretty sure heroes aren’t that kind of man. To make sure he checks the internet.

Following that -to put it mildly- unhelpful source, Steve needs another fount of information. Sam would be his normal first choice, the closest thing he has to a best friend now. The problem there is Steve knows that after Riley died, Sam and Eliza only lasted a few months as a standing couple before severing ties. Steve can’t just demand he answer questions about this topic. Tony and Natasha are usually helpful with culture, but that’s not going to work this time either. Not when his questions are about them. Wanda is as displaced as Steve is, still learning how Americans do things, Jane doesn’t much care about things other than science, and Darcy is a little too frank for his tastes. Which leaves Bruce.

Except when he strides into Bruce’s room it becomes less of a neatly phrased question, and more of a babble. “He was! And he! And she!” Steve blames the room. Now that Bruce is permanently placed in New York, India and Indonesia and Ethiopia and everywhere else have come to him. Bruce cooks things Steve can’t even pronounce, he watches films that should require subtitles without them, and his bedroom is lined with tapestries and statues. The riot of colours and patterns makes an outburst seem natural.

Bruce looks at him kindly then asks “do you want to draw me a diagram?”

Steve is sure Bruce means it nicely. Bruce knows he draws, that sometimes pictures are easier for Steve than words. He’s got almost an entire sketchbook of the Howling Commandos. But now is a horrible time to think in graphics. If Steve attempts to draw he’ll think about all of it in detail. He shakes his head.

“Okay, how about we sit down and you tell me when you’re ready?” 

Rather than go back to his couch Bruce sits on his coffee table. It would be weird, probably, if it wasn’t so _Bruce_. The man is capable of being comfortable everywhere, undoubtedly a side effect of the Hulk. 

After a moment to assess load bearing, Steve joins him. The coffee table doesn’t creak. 

“They were- It didn’t look like making love. It wasn’t romantic. Besides, it was two men.”

“You think men can’t make love?” 

Bruce’s tone says there’s something wrong with the assertion. Steve decides to let it go. One thing the internet has managed to make clear is that these days MMF relationships are just as acceptable as FFM ones. When every capable man doesn’t have to be ready to go to war, the homestead doesn’t need to be kept by two women.

“Even if they can, there were two ladies there too.” That he _knows_ is not normal. Triads are the standard relationship for a reason, two hundred thousand years of human civilization has proven that. People evolve out of things that aren’t good for them.

“A tetrad? Was it Thor and Jane and Darcy and that journalist Thor’s adopted? What’s her name, Caitlyn?”

Steve blinks. How can the idea be so routine that Bruce can think up more than one? 

“I think you liked watching it. I think you would have stayed watching, if someone hadn’t given you the choice.” Steve tries to explain how that doesn’t make sense, but Bruce rolls over him. “What you really wanted was to be pinned and made to watch.”

“What?”

And then things get even more confusing. Bruce goes from grabbing his shoulders with both hands to pinning him down on the table. Steve’s supposed to have fast reflexes. He’s genetically enhanced to be able to keep himself out of danger, so why is his body letting this happen?

 

“Tell me what you saw. Tell me like I’m holding you down in that room and you’ve got no choice but to watch.”

“Clint was bent over the table. Tony was having sex with him.”

Bruce presses down on his chest. “I’m not letting you up until I can see it in my mind’s eye.”

“Um. He was in him. Tony. In Clint. They were. Clint was naked but Tony still had a shirt on. Pepper was in front of Clint, kneeling.”

Bruce presses down again. “Was it a band shirt? I know you know. You have an eye for detail.”

“It was ACDC. There was a skull.”

“There you go. Good job.”

Steve doesn’t know what to say. He thinks he might be blushing, and if he is there’s no way Bruce won’t see it. The older man is making direct eye contact with him.

“What do you think might have happened if Natasha had reached over and pinned Clint’s hands to the table? Would he have liked it as much as you do?”

Bruce’s full weight is sitting on his pelvis, but Steve knows he could buck him off. It’s Bruce, after all, not Hulk. The fact that he doesn’t want to is scary. Still, Steve made himself do all sorts of crazy irrational things in the past, and isn’t about to run screaming now. Especially because he already did so once.

Now that his mind has given permission, even halfway, Steve’s body decides to finish the job it started with not fighting Bruce’s comparatively weak grip. His hips arch up, not enough to displace the man on top of him, just enough to get some friction.

There isn’t a thing in Steve’s life that people haven’t examined. People spent seventy years having opinions about him. There are countless dissertations written on him. Occasionally he’ll get curious and ask his teammates what the world thinks it knows. Usually he doesn’t, deeming it better to say ignorant. He doesn’t know what the world thinks about his abstinence, or even if they truly do know. Any thesis would probably use the buzzword ‘cultural context’. The writer wouldn’t even be wrong. You wait until you’ve found your wives and get married to have sex. It’s just what people did. 

But as Tony and Sam are always saying -albeit in very different tones- the world is a different place now. There are even Dyad Pride marches every summer. People don’t wait anymore. And while this isn’t the most ideal of circumstances, no one can accuse him of not fitting in now, having sex with a lone person. A man, to boot.

It’s the first time he’s had a orgasm with another person. It’s nothing like what he’s imagined it would be like. Not even remotely. But Bruce has let go of one wrist to stroke Steve’s hairline with his thumb, and that’s nice.

“I’m even more confused now,” Steve says plaintively, afterwards. 

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say you were inexperienced before you woke up. Now, I’m not trying to claim that our generation made up kinky sex. I’ve lived in enough places to know that sexual release is universal, for the most part. But I will say that the dance you wanted on your Last Transmission is a far cry from what you saw Tony and Pepper and Clint and Natasha doing. And it’s a far cry from holding you down and talking about it until you come. But we’ve all noticed, and SHIELD has too, that you do better thrown overboard over given time to brood. So forgive me for thinking this was the best way to set you on track.”

Steve doesn’t think that the way he reacted to extreme culture shock and time shock was brooding. That’s not fair to him, and he knows Sam would agree. Rebuilding takes time. But Bruce is right in saying that this was the best strategy for this particular issue. Like Dum-Dum explaining exactly why the Commandos needed a brothel night, Bruce has maneouvered him into acceptance of alternative sexual practices.


End file.
